A Novella MisTaken(25)

She didn’t have any dirt on Lacy, though, and she’d still have to admit what she’d done. Jay wandered over to the window and stared out at the busy street below. Life had been so much simpler last week. How did this view stay the same when everything else was now slippery and uncertain?

Well, that was dumb. She mentally chastised herself for adding to the heap of overused clichés. If she’d read that in a student’s paper, she’d have marked them down for unoriginality. Heaving a sigh, she wondered idly if there was any recently poached food in the house. Then she wondered if her feminism wasn’t hindering her by refusing to learn to cook. Then she decided she didn’t care. As she turned away to go stare at the contents of her fridge, something caught her eye outside.

Noah.

Noah being flagged down by a well-heeled older blonde outside her brownstone. She must be lost. Oh, how nice. Probably he was going to give some messed-up directions to the poor woman and confuse her even more than she already was.

But that wasn’t happening at all, because her hair was flipping and she was definitely flirting when she put that hand on his shoulder, and he was smiling back, and oh, my God, does he have a cougar girlfriend? She jumped back from the window, heart pounding.

That lasted almost two and a half full seconds before her face was mashed against the cool glass again. The blonde was slipping something out of her purse and looking around. Noah was steering her toward the corner of the building. Away from prying eyes. Well, hah! Jay’s bedroom window looked out upon just that corner.

She bolted for her room. Unfortunately, she had failed to account for a kitchen chair in her frantic trajectory. Precious seconds were wasted untangling herself from the floor and the chair while cursing loudly and praying nothing was broken.

By the time she got to the bedroom window, the blonde was retreating. Damn! She’d missed the whole—whatever that was. Then the woman turned around, still tucking something into her obviously expensive handbag and blew Noah a kiss. As Jay’s jaw dropped, he blew one in return.

What. The. Hell. She considered the options as she watched Noah meander off toward his building through narrowed eyes. An exchange of some kind had clearly taken place. Not just an exchange of numbers—that could have been accomplished on the street. No, this was clandestine. Something not meant for others to see.

Just like so many things had been happening in the neighborhood. Just like the stories splashed on all the papers. The thing that surely could not be true about gorgeous, intelligent, complicated Noah. He couldn’t really be a drug dealer, could he? But what else? And who said drug dealers couldn’t be gorgeous, intelligent, and complicated? Actually, they were probably all pretty fucking complicated.

Maybe he was just doing it to pay off his student loans. Maybe he was paying off a gambling debt. Perhaps it was blackmail. Or maybe it was the family business, something he longed to escape but didn’t know how.

Or maybe … maybe she was losing her mind. Maybe it was completely innocent. Maybe she needed to actually go over and ask him about it, instead of jumping to crazy conclusions. She was no Blake Donovan. The more seconds that ticked away from what she had thought she had seen, the more ridiculous her assumptions seemed to her. She congratulated herself on growing as a person, instead of going off half-cocked.

Except that she had already let the idea of going over to ask him take seed. And then she had thought of going off half-cocked, which reminded her of something Noah certainly never did. And then next thing she knew, she was in her bathroom, making sure her tussle with the chair had left no visible bruises and doing a quick swish with some mouthwash before reapplying her lipstick.

And then she was at his door. And then he opened it all shirtless and sexy, and then he smiled, and then all her rational thoughts left with a whoosh and all she could think was, “And then?”

* * *

Noah was never going to get any work done ever again. He was also never going to complain, because the thought of never seeing Jaylene again after their night together was far more upsetting to him. And he had worried about that—that after the post-orgasmic glow wore off, she’d be a little less enamored with the idea of being dominated by a man.

But here she was. And even though it had really only been half a day since their last encounter, he was suddenly as desperate for her touch as the night they first kissed. He crooked a finger at her with a smile, so she’d understand that although it was an order, it was a sexy order. From the wicked grin he received in return as she stepped through the threshold, though, it seemed the order was well-received.

She cocked a brow as if to say, “And then?” He took a step back, and then another, beckoning her forward and into his lair. Living room. He meant living room. They stopped, staring, still silent. He moved his finger again. Closer. Closer. And then when she was close enough, he indicated she should kneel.